covered by scenery,” Nealie explained. “I didn’t modify the hang channel took the signal through a Folsom Image Pro HD signal
of the system, except for moving the centre cluster 25 feet processor to the plasma screen via Gefen fibre.
downstage, because I didn’t want the speakers to be upstage
of the presenters with microphones.”
Project Manager Kraig Aaronson, who was responsible for the
Capcom booth, had to deal with both the tight timeframe and
When it came to working on the convention floor, CT staffers booth size. “There was a little box and all the equipment had to go
put together some of the most talked about booths. Some of in there,” he stated. “Then, if anything went wrong, it would have
those were full of flash, but others like the Nintendo booth were been like if something went wrong in the Space Shuttle.”
interesting because of its simplicity and focus on ambiance
over oomph.
The unique feature of the Capcom booth was the doorway that
visitors walked through. “It was an i6 wall, so it looked great,” he
“Nintendo has done many things in the past,” reported CT San
said, “but when we were laying out the software and had to
Francisco Project Manager Jolyon Beliz, “but this year it was all
segment the wall, we had to do a little juggling with the Barco
about the atmosphere. There wasn’t a big stage. It wasn’t in your
software.” In fact, Aaronson’s team asked for a second piece of
face. We placed a lot of LEDs over a large portion of the booth,
media that was better designed for the doorway feature.
spaced them out and worked with a lot of fabric and signage.
We set a mood for people to come in, enjoy and play the games,
The media was run off a Grass Valley Turbo R SD/HD recorder.
rather than coming in and seeing a show.”
On the audio side, four JBL VP7212 powered speakers were
steeply angled to avoid transmitting sound into the aisles or
The booth boasted 160 panels of Martin 40mm LED that were
neighbouring booths.
hung vertically. The Martin panels were selected for two reasons.
“They are a low resolution LED, so it’s a cost effective product, but
The Square Enix booth, said John Van Diver, was straight ahead
they look quite nice,” he said. “Also, this was the solution that
in terms of the video technology — a large LED wall made of 200
enabled us to rig vertically because the frame structure was
Barco NX-4 tiles and (22) 46” 1080p LCD monitors were
strong enough to attach I-bolts to that we could clip right onto.”
everything that was provided.
The work of assembling and testing the panels started before It was the audio, he commented, that caused more of a
the window of install opportunity opened. That proved to be challenge, since the booth was a rectangle with the LED screen
crucial, since the team only had two-and-a-half days to put the right in the middle with ten conference rooms tucked behind it. The
whole booth together. “We had to get it set up before anyone client called for big sound in front of the screen and minimised
else could start working the booth,” he said, “so we had to get behind it as much as possible. To answer the challenge, Van Diver
the panels up quickly. We had six walls to do the first day, which used Meyer’s Galileo to manage the signals between the
we managed to get done in about eight hours.” speakers and subwoofers.
In addition to the LED, the booth featured a 103” 1920X1080 HD “One of the things we wanted to avoid this year as the sound of
plasma screen. The media was delivered via Concise Watchout low end in the conference rooms,” Van Diver explained. “So, we
computer running 1024X768 output. “We were able to work set the subwoofers in a cardioid pattern and then used the
closely with Video Arts, the video editors and with producer Galileo to put the speakers out of phase and delayed the signal.
Ralph Miller, to create videos that were pixel mapped within the By doing that, we found that the low frequency sound is cancelled
1024X768 working space to fit all of our screens,” Beliz out on the back side of the subs, so all the sound from the
explained. “That was once again another advantage of the subwoofers was focused into the audience space.”
Martin panels, that we were able to physically address them
before we ever put them in the walls and that saved us time.”
Van Diver worked with the video and audio systems to
ensure that both worked with the lighting rig to dim and mute,
Two channels from Watchout provided SMPTE to the lighting respectively, at certain points within the graphics loop. “We
company to synchronise the lights in the booth and another took the SMPTE time code out from the computer and used
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